During the discovery process, the MPLS Topology Server component of MPLS Manager uses instances of certain VMware Smart Assurance object classes to create within its repository a data model representation of the discovered MPLS, VPN, and (optional) BGP topology. The various data models that are supported by the MPLS Topology Server are shown in:

  • Chapter 4, “Discovery of MPLS Objects”

  • Chapter 5, “Discovery of L2VPN Objects”

  • Chapter 6, “Discovery of L3VPN Objects”

  • Chapter 7, “Discovery of BGP Objects”

    The MPLS Topology Server discovers MPLS-, VPN-, and BGP-specific objects in accordance to the topology that is initially imported from the IP Availability Manager source. The imported topology consists of router and switch objects, router and switch containment objects, and router and switch connectivity objects.

    CLI device-access objects are also imported from IP Availability Manager.

    Upon sending SNMP polls/and or CLI commands to the imported devices to discover the MPLS, VPN, and BGP topology, the MPLS Topology Server models (represents) the discovered topology in its repository, and maps the discovered topology to the router and switch topology that is discovered by IP Availability Manager.

    Topology information that is needed for monitoring and analysis is then imported from the MPLS Topology Server by the MPLS Monitoring Server and the MPLS Analysis Server. The subset of topology that is imported by the MPLS Monitoring Server consists of just those classes and class attributes that are related to monitoring. The subset of topology that is imported by the MPLS Analysis Server consists of just those classes and class attributes that are related to causality.